Tours: Alfred Mame et fils, 1893. Quarto, with many illustrations, some taken from photographs, gilt edges, in the original ornately pictorial cloth, with pretty decoration in silver and gilt.Fine copy of the first French edition, which puts the English edition of 1890 quite in the shade. It is scarce... More

Broadside, halved at central rule to form two sheets measuring 330 x 255 mm. & 330 x 260 mm., illustrated with four dramatic woodcut scenes.Rare and significant broadside advertising a panoramic lecture show on the Australian colonies that toured England in 1850... More

Oil on canvas on board, 31 x 46 cm; signed with initials LB lower left; handsomely framed.A tranquil and sunny landscape typical of the best painting of Louis Buvelot. Buvelot arrived in Melbourne in 1865, where his interest in... More

Oil on canvas, signed lower right 920 x 490 mm, in original Melbourne frame.This large and attractive oil painting is in the original timber frame with the label of the Melbourne maker, W. & C. Dean, Collins Street on verso. It is... More

London: Albion Press, 1808. Duodecimo, with a portrait; original printed grey boards.An unusual printing of the famous semi-utopian text, Fontenelle's influential account of other worlds. The text is of some feminist interest: it is a woman who asks questions of the scientist in the Conversations, and its tacit acceptance... More

Small octavo; half-title discarded, no publisher's advertisements which appear in some copies; in full green morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.Rare Australian utopia and imaginary voyage: first edition of this fantastical tale chronicling an 1835 expedition from Bathurst to the... More

London: Oxford University Press, 1962. Octavo, portrait frontispiece and black & white plates, grey cloth; dust-jacket.Rose de Freycinet was smuggled aboard her husband's command, the Uranie, in 1817 in Toulon and circumnavigated the globe until 1820. Her account is both detailed and acute, with lengthy descriptions of the Australian continent.More

London: W. and F.G. Cash, 1853. Octavo; an excellent copy in contemporary polished calf gilt,bookplate of Frank M.C. Forster.Attractively bound copy of the standard contemporary biography of Elizabeth Fry, the charismatic Quaker minister and prison reformer. Her interest in the deplorable plight of prisoners began at an early age..... More

London: John Hatchard, 1848. Two volumes, octavo, frontispieces, manuscript inscription at front of each volume; in contemporary maroon morocco, gilt.Second revised and enlarged edition of the life of the great Quaker reformer. The work was edited by two of Fry's daughters, and includes many excerpts from her letters and... More

Octavo, 77 pp., with a frontispiece and illustrations throughout, with two instances of juvenile handcolouring (but minor); original wrappers.The popularity of Gibbs' "gumnut" series ensured that many subsequent editions would enter the market in different formats: this sequel to Little Ragged... More

Oil on canvas, 30 x 54 cm. framed in timber; signed by the artist on verso.Mabel Hookey (1871-1953) was the first woman journalist in Tasmania as well as an accomplished author, photographer, poet and fine artist. Daughter of Vernon William Bligh Hookey, a.... More

London: Printed for the author; and sold by J. Walter, 1791. Octavo, folding map; contemporary half calf and marbled boards. A very good, clean copy.First edition. "Lempriere, a surgeon at Gibraltar, was sent for by the favourite son of the Emperor of Morocco for medical attendance, in the belief... More

Hobart: J. Walch, London, Ward, 1879. Folio, full-page lithographic plates; in the original decorated cloth, all edges gilt.First edition and characteristic of her best illustrated work, this was Meredith's first major literary and artistic undertaking since 1860. The illustrations are based on pencil sketches and in the preface Meredith... More

Small octavo, 164 pp., half title, one page of illustrations; in modern tan calf, gilt.A fine and engaging work by Louisa Anne Meredith, better known for her long and industrious career in Tasmania, but here publishing an... More

[Sydney or Scotland]: 21 August, 1829. Three-page ALS in a neat but unfinished hand, 228 x 185 mm., original red wax seal, stamp for the Sydney post office but not otherwise marked, very good.A charming and rather rare example of a woman writing from Sydney in the 1820s. The... More

Small quarto, 23 pp., recent marbled wrappers.Rare: second edition of Seward's famous tribute, published the same year as the first edition, and 'one of the most influential odes on Captain Cook' (Forbes). Numerous footnotes refer to events on... More

Five folio publications; disbound and perforated where previously stab-sewn.Five separately published parliamentary papers regarding the abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean colonies. The first three papers (dated 1824, 1830 and 1831 respectively) concern the improvement of slaves through religious instruction... More

Sepia drawing 110 mm x 170 mm (image size) mounted in an early timber frame.Charming rendering of a colonial woman oystering--a rare subject. Far from being the preserve of the gourmet, oysters in 19th century Sydney were fodder for all. Shell deposits in Sydney... More

Small quarto, three double-page colour pop-up plates; original stiff pictorial wrappers.A rare pop-up book featuring the ever-popular character Blinky Bill. This text is taken from the first Blinky Bill story, with all the associated images, and... More

Sydney: Charles Potter, 1894. Thick octavo, folding site map frontispiece, black & white plates, many folding floor plans and diagrams; inscription in ink on top p.[1], contemporary half red morocco.Detailed illustrated report on "the representation of our country…as well as on various matters which seemed …of importance…" at the..... More